Ah, the good 'ol days, when you could smoke a pipe while working on your layout

Kilohertz Sep 18, 2020

  1. Kilohertz

    Kilohertz TrainBoard Member

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    Found this in the pile of books that my friend gave me last year when I bought all of his model railroad N scale stuff...the cars, locos etc may be older than I thought. :cautious::unsure:

    It's pretty interesting reading, some of it still applies, actually a lot of it still applies. Not many rheostats used anymore though. :whistle:

    Thought you might get a kick out of this.

    Cheers

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  2. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    That's cool. Think I had this book at one time but it's gone now.

    I miss the smell of a good pipe with cherry pipe tobacco. Grandad always had one going when in his workshop. Plus, the owner of a long ago mid 80's LHS that I used to frequent was always smoking one. Any time I smell one these days, I flash back to model trains and grandads workshop. :)
     
  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I still have my copy of this book. Wow. I just realized how many decades have gone by...
     
  4. Philip H

    Philip H TrainBoard Member

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    The proprietor of Jaynel Model Trains in Baton Rouge smoked a pipe. Really great old guy - partially bald and with glasses - who put up with my 9 and 10 year old questions, ideas and general wild eyed enthusiasm. That store is so long gone I don't think the building even stands.
     
  5. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I still have mine, bought as a kid at a church rummage sale. One of the founding fathers at Kalmbach, author Linn Westcott had a gift for clear writing and illustration.
     
  6. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    Now days you can still smoke a pipe... just doesn't have tobacco in it...
     
  7. Mo-Pac

    Mo-Pac TrainBoard Member

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    Pipes now in days don’t look the same as they used to.


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  8. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    I still have mine also. Bought it new at LOS when it was current issue.

    Note the tie. Only a little before my time, but if you look at MR issues up until roughly the 60's most men wore a tie and shop appron in photos.

    I've considered staging some photos like that to show of some old tools.

    My father also smoked a pipe almost every waking hour. Mostly Carter Hall. Sometimes cherry.
    I have an 18" unused clay pipe displayed on the dinning room mantle. I've thought about trying it but afraid I would like it to much.

    On a side note. Public houses and taverns used to keep pipes for customer use in boxes hearthside. That was obviously pre Covid 19


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  9. Mo-Pac

    Mo-Pac TrainBoard Member

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    Story goes the reason why the pipes were so long, was because of social use. Once someone was finished with the pipe. The inn keeper or the next person would have snapped off the portion of the pipe that was used before. So the next one will not have to worry about catching the current virus at the time. I learned that at both Sturbridge village and Williamsburg.
    I really like your pipe display!

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    Last edited: Sep 18, 2020
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  10. Kilohertz

    Kilohertz TrainBoard Member

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    What I really like is repairing or working on some electronic or electrical piece that hasn't been touched in years, and when the solder melts you release that 60 year old rosin core smell that has been frozen in time, quite often associated with cloth covered wire which probably absorbed some of the flux as well....now that is something I enjoy about working with older gear.

    Cheers
     
  11. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    We had those "Pipe Smoker" days in Z Scale too, although I am NOT a pipe smoker... I'm more of a Cigar around the campfire guy myself! :D Anyways almost everyone who has been in Z Scale a few decades has this locomotive in their collection:
    Marklin 8803.jpg
     
  12. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    My grandfather smoked Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco in his pipe when I was a kid... That smell was wonderful.

    His shop was full of SWR cans filled with miscellaneous hardware, parts, etc. When ever he worked on something, he always used a SWR can to hold all the small parts until he put it back together.

    Reminds me of the old prank call to a shop: "Do you have Sir Walter Raleigh in a can? Yeah? You better let him out!"
     
  13. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    Both my grandfather and great uncle smoked various things at various times. My grandmother never seemed to mind it but my great aunt (my grandmother's sister) used to say to my great uncle, "Do you HAVE to light up that stinking pipe?" I couldn't understand that at all because it smelled wonderful!

    BTW, that's the same edition I have.

    Also, I think Linn Westcott was a genius.

    Doug
     
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  14. wvgca

    wvgca TrainBoard Member

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    you still can smoke a pipe, or cigar, or even a cigarette while working on your layout ...
    it just isn't 'politically correct' to put on the cover any more, sigh ...
     
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  15. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    True but my wife would kill me and you guys would have to break out a derrick to lift me and my concrete shoes off the bottom of a lake.:eek:
     
  16. nscalestation

    nscalestation TrainBoard Supporter

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    Found this image on Tony Thompson's blog. As Tony noted in his September 2018 post, model railroaders were often portrayed wearing a tie and smoking a pipe. In those days most adults were smoking something most of the time.

    [​IMG]
     
  17. Kitbash

    Kitbash TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thanks for starting the thread. Linn Wescott was the man back in the mid 60's when I got interested in model railroading at 10 to 12 years old. I have that book above and quite a few others from that era. I remember looking in the back of magazines back then and seeing ads for air brushes and other things. That eventually opened my eyes to the variety of hobbies contained in one hobby. Wiring, painting, historical research, carpentry, painting, planning, and yes..... even collecting smoking pipes!

    This thread reminds me I did a lot more reading on the hobby back then as opposed to cherry picking articles and "quickie knowledge" available on the web.
     
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  18. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    Perhaps at clubs or public meets, but I can't imagine the majority (or even a sizeable minority) of model railroaders wearing a tie while running trains alone (or even with a few friends) in their basement.

    I'll bet the illustrators were merely trying to target "well-heeled" hobbyists with more disposable income.

    And I guess showing a can/bottle/mug of beer would have been unthinkable. Though "beer can" tank cars were certainly in bounds.
     
  19. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    The kind of weird thing about all this is, I smoked for 36 years, from about 1971 until 2007, and I don't remember, even once, smoking while I was working on or operating any of my layouts.

    Doug
     
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  20. Kilohertz

    Kilohertz TrainBoard Member

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    So glad the thread is still going, I really like the last image posted, thanks Brad...is that O scale without a center rail or could it be S? Looks pretty large.

    Cheers
     
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